The Daniel K. Inouye Solar Telescope, expected to rank as the world’s largest solar telescope when it is unveiled in 2019, will include never-before-seen camera technology developed by a technology company based in Ireland and a consortium of eight leading universities in the United Kingdom.
The $344 million telescope, funded by the National Science Foundation and administered by the Association of Universities for Research in Astronomy, will be on the site of the National Solar Observatory at University of Hawaii’s Haleakala Observatory on Maui.
Equipped with a primary mirror some 14 feet in diameter and adaptive optics technology, the telescope will be able to pick up unprecedented detail on the surface of the sun. The power of the telescope is comparable to being able to examine a coin from 100 kilometers (62 miles) away, according to a release issued by Queen’s University, which is part of the U.K. consortium.
Queen’s University professor Mihalis Mathiodakis said the telescope will help scientists "observe and model the physical processes in the solar atmosphere on their intrinsic spatial and temporal scales," which will make it possible to better forecast solar activity that can affect global climate and technology-based communications.
The U.K. consortium is working with Andor Technology to develop and manufacture detectors for the telescope.
"The technology will provide an innovating combination of high-performance specifications that simply do not exist today, a solution that will prove enabling not only for next-generation solar studies, but for the wider professional astronomy community and beyond," said Andor Technical Director Donal Denvir.
In addition to Queen’s University, the consortium includes Armagh Observatory, Northumbria University, University College London and Glasgow, Sheffield, St. Andrews and Warwick universities.
According to the National Solar Observatory, the telescope will help scientists learn how cosmic magnetic fields are generated and destroyed; what role such fields play in the organization of plasma structures and releases of energy seen throughout the universe; and what mechanisms might be responsible for solar variability.
